A chief engineer spends time overseeing newbuilds

On the trip through life, being a marine engineer offers many different
avenues.

It
began by coincidence, but ended up as a career path. Having been posted at
shipyards in Korea, Japan and China for more than nine years, Niels Jørgen
Iversen has been one of NORDEN’s most well-known faces in Asia - and one of
the employees launching the most of NORDEN’s vessels. But a new chapter is
about to start for him, back in Denmark. At the beginning of the new year,
Niels Jørgen Iversen will hand in his discharge book and retire. This is his
story of a long, varied career with NORDEN.

Under distant skies

“It was something of a coincidence that I started supervising newbuildings,”
explains Niels Jørgen Iversen, who trained as an engineer and was employed by
NORDEN in 1986. “For the first three years of my employment with NORDEN, I was
chief engineer of m.t. NORDTRAMP. We traded in tropical waters, and were in
the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. Then, suddenly, in 1990 I was given
the opportunity to go to Hyundai Shipyard in Ulsan, Korea to supervise the
building of the Capesize bulkcarriers NORD-ENERGY and NORD POWER and to
experience daily life under distant skies. We had to give it a try, and my
wife, Kristine, and I settled in Korea for almost a year”, he continues.

Enormous challenge

“This stay gave us a good idea of what living abroad is like, and it was a
huge experience for us both. But it was also an enormous challenge,
professionally. As NORDEN’s representative at the shipyard, I and the rest of
the team are responsible for supervising the various phases of the vessels’
production. Will it be built in accordance with specifications? Will the
schedule hold, and is the quality as expected? There was a lot to follow up
on. In the early 1990s, Korea was a very young shipbuilding nation, which had
far less experience in shipbuilding and project management than countries such
as Denmark and Japan had at the time, and which Korea has achieved today”, he
explains.

Sixteen vessels launched

When both vessels had been completed in the spring of 1991, Niels Jørgen and
others sailed NORD POWER back to Denmark, and he spent the rest of the year as
chief engineer aboard this vessel. Since his time at Hyundai Shipyard in
Korea, he has launched a further fourteen of NORDEN’s newbuildings and spent a
total of eight more years in Japan, Korea and China.

In 1992 followed a brief stay at Shin Kurushima Dockyard in Japan. This
shipyard had already launched the Aframax tanker SKAUNORD, but the final
adjustments and most of the fittings had to be supervised. Niels Jørgen
Iversen was given this assignment. Originally, he was to have been chief
engineer aboard the vessel in its planned bareboat charter operation, but
SKAUNORD ended up in time charter, manned by the shipowners themselves. For
the next five years, Niels Jørgen was instead chief engineer on the Capesize
bulkers NORD-ENERGY and NORD POWER. In 1997, he also worked as chief engineer
on NORD FAST and NORD-ENERGY. When NORD-ENERGY called at a port in South
Africa toward the end of that year, he was asked to go to Ulsan, Korea for
another shipyard assignment at the Hyundai Shipyard.

This time, he was to supervise the finishing work on the Aframax tanker
NORDASIA. Assignment completed, Niels Jørgen sailed NORDASIA to China and back
to Korea, and subsequently stayed on as chief engineer for two voyages. Since
then, shipbuilding has been the order of the day. In the Japanese countryside
From 1999 to the beginning of 2001, Niels Jørgen and Kristine were at the
Oshima shipyard in Japan. This shipyard is located far from the beaten path in
the south-western corner of Japan, between Nagasaki and Sasebo. Here, Niels
Jørgen and Kristine became good friends with many locals and learned to
appreciate Japanese nature, culture and food – including “sashimi” (raw fish)
and “sushi” (which really means rice cake, but which in our culture has become
synonymous with “raw fish”).

They also became familiar with the custom of kneeling at dinner in
restaurants, although it got harder with age to get up again, as Niels Jørgen
explains. At the Oshima shipyard, Niels Jørgen supervised the building of
three Handymax bulkcarriers. NORDEN itself acquired NORD CECILIE (delivered in
August 2000), while the two other vessels were delivered directly to a Greek
shipping company.

Volcano baths

For the next two years, Niels Jørgen Iversen worked at Sumitomi Shipyard in
Yokusoka, south of Yokohama in the Tokyo Bay and, unlike Oshima, this shipyard
was located in an industrial, urban area. “Initially, we were not happy about
the prospects of moving away from the peace and quiet, closeness and our many
new friends in Oshima, but the reality proved quite the opposite. It was, in
many ways, a fantastic time. The shipyard was very well organised, and all
employees – from the dock workers to the most senior office workers - were
highly skilled and very friendly.

Socially, there was also a great community spirit and a lot of leisure
activities and trips were organised for all employees at the shipyard. For
example, we went on a trip to a volcanic area offering, among other things,
Japanese hot baths and instruction in the special rituals associated with
these. In the hotel room, my wife and I searched in vain for the beds, until
we discovered sleeping mats in the cupboards. As it turns out, this is quite
common in many Japanese hotels. We slept perfectly comfortably on the mats,
anyway. We drove the 12-1300 kilometres from Oshima to Yokusoka in NORDEN’s
car. This was a great nature experience with varying landscapes,” he explains.

In hospital in Korea

In the spring of 2003 followed a brief stay at the STX shipyard (formerly the
Daedon Shipyard) in Korea, which was to build a product tanker for NORDEN:
Unfortunately, after just a month and a half, Niels Jørgen fell into a block,
seriously injuring his right hand. He was hospitalised for three weeks. At
Korean hospitals, friends and family feed and wash the patients, so Niels
Jørgen’s wife was “hospitalised”, too. After this, they went back
to Denmark for a period while Niels Jørgen received intensive rehabilitation
treatment to his hand at the hospital in Viborg.

By the autumn of 2003, Niels Jørgen was ready for another stint abroad – this
time at the Oshima shipyard in Japan where he had worked two years earlier and
was now to supervise the Handymax vessel NORD AMALIE, which was sold to Dubai
on completion. From the summer of 2004, the address became Mitsui Shipyard in
Chiba, Japan. This shipyard was to construct three Handymax bulkcarriers, of
which two were sold on while NORDEN kept the third (m.v. NORDEN).

Young shipbuilding nation.

In January 2006, Niels Jørgen and Kristine moved to China – or more
specifically to the Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin by the Yangtse River, 200
kilometres west of Shanghai. Here, Niels Jørgen supervised the building of m.v.
NORD MARINER, which was delivered on 28 July 2006. “This assignment in many
ways resembled the one I took on in Korea around 1990, as China is also a
young shipbuilding nation – when it comes to modern steel vessels. You need to
be very careful, follow up on all details and be on your toes. You should not
expect the vessel to be built in accordance with specifications in every
detail. But I – and the rest of the team at the shipyard – have to make sure
that it is. That’s what we’re there for. It is possible to end up with a good
product if you follow up closely on a daily basis,” states Niels Jørgen
Iversen.

Interested in contact

“After a few months in China, we made a number of Chinese friends. At first,
the language barrier created a lot of distance, as few people speak English.
But everyone is very friendly and interested in contact. At the Chengxi
shipyard, NORDEN has three Chinese inspectors, and it’s enormously important
to be able to speak with everyone directly. That is how you achieve good
results,” he explains. After seven years in Japan, two in Korea, six months in
China and ten years at sea for NORDEN, Niels Jørgen Iversen is now retiring,
handing over the helm at the Chengxi shipyard to Mortan Gaasedal.

Important to establish a local presence

“It is incredibly important for NORDEN to be present locally, where things are
happening, and to show empathy, whether in business deals or in ensuring the
progress and quality of our newbuildings. This generates mutual respect and
understanding of each others’ views, which is essential to successful
cross-national and cross-cultural collaborations. In this respect, Niels
Jørgen Iversen has been an outstanding representative throughout all his years
with NORDEN”, says Jacob Meldgaard, Senior Vice President of NORDEN’s dry
cargo department and overseas offices.

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